


Trust Me

by Headphone_Love



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Feelings Realization, Flashbacks, Gen, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Kidnapping, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Langst, M/M, Mind Games, Mind Manipulation, Minor Violence, Permanent Injury, Protective Keith (Voltron), Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Team as Family, Tumblr request, carved mark, supportive team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 10:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15192896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Headphone_Love/pseuds/Headphone_Love
Summary: Lance has some adjusting to do after being kidnapped.Keith just wants to help.------“Stay back!”“Lance, you’ve gotta calm down…” Shiro began, Lance’s blue eyes narrowing and landing on him, aim directed at his head.“No,youneed toback up,” Lance insisted, voice hoarse and full of anger. “Either that or I can shoot you just like I did with fake Allura over there. At least they got the eyes right this time.”





	1. We Found You

**Author's Note:**

> My first Voltron fic, so I'm sorry if the characters seem OOC or anything like that. This is in a future I made up for the sake of keeping canon Voltron at a distance from this AU. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> ~HxL

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 11/17/18: Minor edits done for grammar and sentence structure. Added scenes/Keith perspective for story flow purposes.

Finding Lance had been their priority.

At first, they had all convinced themselves it was just because he was an indispensable part of the team.

Lance was their red paladin: their sharpshooter and friend.

It was so much more than that, however, as seen in the following _months_ it took to find him. It was suffocating to be on the ship—let alone in rooms with each other—their eyes speaking on their behalf where words couldn't express their thoughts. They’d nod, they pat each other’s shoulders. In the case of Pidge, Hunk, and Allura, they’d often hug, pretending not to notice the way one other trembled while holding on tight.

As if any one of them could be next.

Keith would watch these displays from afar, knowing very well that the pain everyone on the team felt was somewhat similar.

Pidge and Hunk had lost their original fighter pilot and (best) friend.

Shiro had lost his protege and one of the people that had saved him all those years ago and felt like he had failed him.

Allura and Coran had lost a paladin: a fairly loved one at that.

And Keith...he’d lost someone important.

Lance was too much to him to put a simple label on.

It is why it hurt to not know where the fellow paladin was and whether he was even still alive. Because of this, Keith took to naming things he did know, such as how the team had regretted that they hadn’t complimented Lance more often. It was obvious just how much they all needed him. He was like a battery, and the team had lost all morale without him around to lift it...

 

...which is why when they found him—Lance having escaped as they infiltrated—they were all more than relieved and thankful. Keith had carried Lance back to the ship himself, the Red Lion following loyally. Keith couldn’t help but thank the Lion, it a partial reason they had even gotten a hint of where Lance was being held captive. He also had to thank Hunk and Pidge, who had practically been dead on their feet during the rescue missions after days of attempting to locate both Red and Lance.

Keith only allowed himself a moment of doubt when he’d asked the lion whether Lance would be alright. He just needed to know, because after so long, it felt like a fantasy. Even as they all finally slept somewhat peacefully, Keith wasn't surprised to find out that he hadn't been the only one having occasional nightmares about losing Lance again. He had been surprised, however, that he wasn't the only one that had visited Lance's healing pod more than once a night for two weeks straight.

Keith's anxieties nearly melted away when Red had growled quietly as a response, his confidence in Lance fueling the team during the many weeks of watching:  _waiting_.

It’s one of the reasons why it had sent them all into a panic when Lance had thrashed in Hunk’s arms after exiting the healing pod, attempting to get away as if Hunk’s arms were flames themselves. It was equally as shocking when Lance nearly flipped Hunk over his shoulder to escape from his grasp, demanding who they were ‘this time’ and nearly shooting Allura’s hand off in the process.

“Stay back!”

“Lance, you’ve gotta calm down…” Shiro began, Lance’s blue eyes narrowing and landing on him, gun aimed toward his head.

“No, _you_ need to _back up_ ,” Lance insisted, voice hoarse and full of anger. “Either that or I can shoot you just like I did with fake Allura over there. At least they got the eyes right this time.”

“Lance, _listen_ to me.”

“And tell me why I should do that?” Lance snapped.

Coran was eerily relaxed as he stepped forward, Lance’s eyes squinting for a moment before going wide.

“I know this seems...unbelievable, but what is the last thing you remember?”

It seemed to be the wrong thing to ask, because Lance’s shock disappeared in an instant, replaced with fury and desperation. His hands tightened his weapon—later Keith learned he’d grabbed it from Pidge when she hadn’t been watching—and powered it up.

“You’d like to know...wouldn’t you?”

The words were still seared into Keith’s mind, Lance’s voice sounding so _betrayed._  It hadn’t been the Lance that they knew, but it was still the Lance they all loved.

“Of course. I haven’t seen you in many phoebs. It’s only natural that we are concerned after trying to find you.”

Lance let out a small breath, a weak smirk on his lips. “How impressive.”

Coran’s brows furrowed. “What is?”

Lance adjusted his aim, head tilting to the side as he did so. “How they managed to finally make me see you too. The real Coran must have been researched well. You’re the best second to Keith over there.”

Keith tensed, looking around as the others stared at him equally concerned.

“Coran...you shouldn’t…” Allura tried, hands clenching and unclenching at her sides.

Coran stepped forward against Allura’s wishes, Lance backing away and spewing continuous threats until Coran reached out again, hand on the gun and smile on his lips. “What you see is not a false reality, my boy. You helped us rescue you. You escape their terror and found us just as we found you. Do you remember?”

Lance frowned, trembling under the elder Altean's gaze. Keith watched silently, wondering if Lance still thought it was all a trap. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding when the gun powered down and fell from Lance's grip. 

Lance had realized that they were all, in fact, real. Not druids in disguise or a trip caused by some hallucinogenic drug forced into his system. His face fell from anger to disbelief in a matter of seconds, legs giving out beneath him. When the tears entered Lance's eyes, Keith stepped forward to try and help, but a hand kept him in place.

Hunk shook his head slowly and Keith understood. 

_Not yet._

Lance backed away until he reached a wall, pulling his knees into his chest and shaking his head. “Last time they all said that too...but this time Coran...and Hunk...there’s no blood…?”

Hearing the words themselves had been enough to make all of them shake with anger, nothing to do but let it run its course. It was like a car crash that they couldn’t look away from, and yet when Lance pulled at his hair and continued to whisper to himself, Coran had cleared his throat and shielded him from view with his body.

“I believe it’d be best to allow him to adjust naturally back into this environment. The pod picked up no foreign bodies in his bloodstream nor any abnormalities with his brain except for….”

Coran didn't need to spell it out for them. They knew what was wrong wasn't something a physical examination could determine.

And as they all piled out of the med-bay, Keith couldn't help but try to convince himself that things would go back to normal.

They had done it. They had saved him.

But when Keith looked back before leaving just as Coran managed in getting Lance to take his hand, Keith felt his heart drop at the sob that left the red paladin. 

He wondered whether Lance would ever trust them again. 

* * *

 

It took many movements before Lance was able to walk around the ship without guidance, and many more movements after that to get used to eating with them again. As Coran had suggested, Lance slowly readjusted with no pressure from the team, even going as far as to actually look them all in the eyes when they ate sometimes. Hunk would always try to offer Lance his favorite foods as a way to start a conversation, but Lance would simply watch as if still trying to make sense of Hunk being there in the flesh. His lips would purse, and Keith could see the pain on Hunk’s face whenever Lance’s response was “No….”. He’d cover it with a smile, nodding and offering a “maybe next time, man.”

Lance did everything so quietly that sometimes they would all forget he was around.

This realization aggravated Keith to no end.

They had gotten him back; they had been able to bring him back from the brink of _death_.

And yet, it was like Lance was still gone. The thought made Keith’s stomach churn uncomfortably, the voice in the back of his mind telling him he hadn't been enough to help him.

Maybe Lance was gone and they all hadn’t figured it out yet. Maybe he was a clone like Shiro had been, though that was highly unlikely considering the Galra hadn’t been the issue this time around. They had long taken care of them, but with old enemies gone, they should have known new ones always took that chance to increase in power. If Keith had known this was Lance's fate, he might have just taken that offer to stay with him on Earth instead. 

“Lance.”

The red paladin sucked in a breath. His shoulders tensed, eyes wide as he turned and complexion pale. He had dark circles from an obvious lack of sleep, and Keith fought to urge to look away.

With a slight nod, Keith did his best to keep his tone soft and non-threatening. “Come with me?"

Lance’s lips twitched as if he wanted to immediately reject it, and Keith could see how he visibly trembled. Lance offered a smile that Keith assumed was supposed to be natural, hand moving to his hair as he spoke.

“I...uh, have some stuff to do in my room. Cleaning and that stuff.”

“You never clean.”

“Yeah, well, it’s nice," Lance whispered, gently picking at his jacket that he still hadn't seemed to readjust to. "To clean sometimes.”

Swallowing hard, Keith reached out and could hear Lance suck in a breath when his own hand was taken.

“Five minutes," Keith insisted. "I’m sure you’ll remember it.”

* * *

 

As they looked at the stars that spread around them, Lance’s shoulders eased along with the fear in his eyes. His lips were parted as his gaze followed every star, every planet, and everything in between. If there was one thing Keith had learned about Lance in all their years together, he was a lot more book smart than people gave him credit for. When he wanted, he could memorize like no one’s business.

And he had.

“You were teaching all of us the names...do you remember?” Keith asked lightly, throat dry and heart beating loudly in his ears. “Pidge was the one who was in the lead if I remember right.”

For the first time since he’d exited the healing pod, a small smile formed on Lance’s lips. It didn’t reach his eyes, but Keith felt it was an improvement from the forced one earlier.

“Shiro was in the lead…”

Keith perked, looking over Lance’s face for any sign of his answer being guessed. Instead, Lance raised a hand to rub his tired eyes, lips twitching and showing he had more to say.

“Shiro was in the lead...and Pidge got upset. So she sicked Allura on him and ended up winning…”

“Right,” Keith said with a slight smile of his own, the picture forming in his own mind. “Allura was second because Coran had taught her in the past. You disqualified her and told her if she kissed your cheek you’d think about it.”

Lance’s smile grew. Air left his lips in what Keith assumed was supposed to be a laugh, but it just ended up sounding like a deep sigh. “Yeah. I was so into messing with her even after the war ended. But then the new one started and…”

Keith bit his lip. It was something none of them had expected. He knew the other's had expected to stay home and live the remainder of their lives with their families. Keith was the only one who hadn't created that picture for himself until Lance went as far as to offer his own family to Keith.

_Keith, my man. My mulletfied friend...my family is already huge. One more person won't bother them at all._

“Lance?”

The other took a moment. “Yeah?”

“Why’d you attack us when you left the healing pod?”

Rather than freaking out as expected, Lance hugged his knees closer to his body and kept his eyes on the stars. “As blunt as always.”

“Someone has to be.”

 _You used to be_.

A silence came over them, but Keith waited. He could see Lance from the corner of his eye, shifting just barely and picking at his jeans.

“I thought you were them.”

The answer Keith had been expecting.

“Why?”

“Because you were always them. Every time I thought you’d come, it was them playing with me,” Lance said, tone dropping to a monotonous whisper. “And you’d laugh. All of you laughed and then…” he stopped, neck twisting to hide his face as a slight hiss left his lips. He raised a hand to his head, Keith wanting to reach out but knowing better than to do so. Hunk had warned him already and Keith wasn't about to backtrack on any progress. 

“You’re fine,” Lance murmured to himself, no doubt something Shiro had taught him to do. While Shiro hadn’t been kept by the same monsters that had taken Lance, being tortured and used was the same no matter who did it. “I’m fine,” he repeated, clearing his throat. “I just thought you’d turn into them if I put my weapon down. I thought all of you were drawing it out by acting worried about me. I wanted to kill you. And I could have.”

The silence that followed the confession was nothing short of deafening,

“Do you still want to kill us?”

Lance turned to rest his cheek on his knees, blue eyes hesitantly meeting his own. “Obviously not."

Keith waited before speaking. "But...?"

"But I’m scared you’ll kill me.”

Keith let out a shaky breath. “Why?”

“What good is a broken paladin…?” Lance offered with a weak smile. This smile was the most sincere he had given and it sent Keith’s heart plummeting into his stomach.

Moving over so he was sat closer to Lance, he held out his hand again, eyes focused on the stars. “I wouldn’t.”

When Lance took it a few moments later, Keith squeezed gently.

He hadn’t needed an answer to know Lance knew.

* * *

 

Over time, Lance didn’t just open up to Keith.

He’d begun to tease Allura again, asking if she’d kiss his injuries better whenever a training practice had gone particularly wrong. Ever since Allura had apparently witnessed him freeze up the first time he’d tried alone, he was always watched while training in case something went wrong. 

Lance never made any mention of it, though Keith was sure he knew. 

He also never mentioned the reason behind why he froze up, but no one could deny that Lance was trying to be more open. When Allura did actually kiss his hand in retaliation, he hadn’t blushed as they expected, simply staring at her with a confused expression. This ended up being a lot funnier in the grand scheme of things.

Lance also began to call Hunk “buddy,” again, asking him for seconds and sometimes even thirds while they laughed about something Pidge had either said or done. Pidge, of course, ended up warning Lance about the material she had on him, specifically a few photos of his beauty routine or videos of him singing while showering. It was obvious that the content had been taken before the attack, and Pidge nearly apologized, but Lance didn’t let her.

Instead, he called her bluff and told her to share them all, running a hand through his hair jokingly.

“Maybe then you all will follow my example of good skin care,” Lance had replied, hand brushing against his cheeks. “See, can barely tell what I’ve been through. Don’t look a day over 21.”

With Shiro, the two often offered smiles that shared unspoken words, and Keith, while glad the two were able to have each other to talk to about this kind of thing, felt a bit odd whenever Lance’s gaze would linger a bit longer than Shiro’s own. He pushed the feeling down, knowing now wasn’t the time for it. It’d _never_ be the time for it because even with the second war seeming to be coming to an end with the destruction of the ship that Lance had been on, they were sure more would come and couldn’t be lulled into a false sense of hope.

There were _always_ more.

“Hey, mullet. You look like you’re thinking way too hard considering how early it is.”

Keith turned, spotting Lance with a slight grin, hair damp and arms crossed. Despite seeming to have just showered, Lance was covered nearly from head to toe.

“Mullet, huh? Seems like you’re in a good mood today, cargo pilot.”

Lance let out a chuckle at the old insult, moving to sit beside Keith and relaxing against his seat. “So what brought you here instead of your room? Actually, why doesn't anyone really hang here anymore?" he mumbled."I didn't realize it until now, but  _no_ _one_ has been here together since I've been back. Why?"

Keith shrugged, looking away and stretching his arms above his head. “People are busier, I guess. When one person is doing something, another is resting or off on a mission. It’ll get better eventually.”

The implications were there, and if Lance noticed them, he didn’t show it. He just hummed, shaking his head. “You all need to relax a bit. You’ll get sick if you keep working the way you all do.”

“Says the one who should be resting after another run-in with the simulation?”

“Hey,” Lance said with a frown, pointing a finger at Keith. “Don’t start with me, Mullet. I still took it down even if it got some boo-boos..”

“As long as you took it down, right?”

Lance’s shoulders faltered, a grin forming on his lips as his hand fell back to his lap. “Exactly. We all have to get stronger,” he agreed. “ _but_ that doesn’t mean we should kill ourselves doing it.”

This time, Lance had made the implications and let them hang in the air.

Keith let them float.

* * *

 

“Keith? Can I talk to you for a moment?”

Keith honestly wanted to say no, just so he could continue to not-watch as Lance trained with his bayard, but Shiro seemed serious. “Sure. Now?”

“Preferably.”

Looking back at the red paladin, he spotted Lance smiling in their direction, waving as his bayard disappeared from his grip. He moved towards them both. “I’ll end here for today,” he assured Keith, bowing his head slightly at Shiro. “Hunk wants me to try some recipe he said he’s been dying to test.”

“Good. Save me some if it’s good,” Keith said as Lance snorted.

“ _If_.”

Taking their leave first, Shiro and Keith moved towards the former's room. Keith didn't need to ask why his room considering the circumstances.

When they got there, Shiro moved to sit, Keith leaning against a wall and tilting his head. “So...why the chat?”

“I need you to help Lance.”

Keith’s eyes squinted in confusion. “What do you mean? He’s been fine lately. A lot better, actually. You saw how good he was when training.”

“No,” Shiro said quietly, his eyes on the ground as he clasped his hands together. “He’s a lot better at pretending. Coran and I noticed that he seems to be...overthinking,” he tried to explain. “Instead of moving forward, he seems to be reverting back to who he thinks he should be. He thinks he needs to flirt and laugh to make us feel better.”

Frowning, Keith let out a deep breath. “How do you know this?”

Shiro shrugged his shoulders. “It could just be because it’s such a Lance thing to do, but you’ve noticed it too, haven’t you?”

“Noticed what exactly?”

Shiro didn’t answer, and Keith knew pretending wasn’t just a coping mechanism for Lance, but all of them. Coran and Shiro seemed to have noticed the game while the rest of them tried to keep it going. It was to be expected, he supposed.

“Alright,” Keith said quietly, eyeing the former black paladin. “So what can I do to make him stop doing that? Coran said it’d be best to let it run its course, didn’t he?”

“He did,” Shiro agreed. “But consider his training injuries and the fact that he still flinches whenever he’s patted on the back, we need to bring it up. Whatever he’s working through...this is one thing he can’t go through without someone pulling him through. Does this all make sense?”

Keith pushed off the wall, arms falling to rest at his sides. “Yeah. It does.”

Shiro let out a relieved smile, nodding his head. “I wish I could help more, but we don’t know what they did to him. The Galra were cruel,” Shiro admitted, looking down at his arm and flexing his hand. Keith could feel the burn against his back where his own reminder of that war remained. It wasn’t so much a painful memory as one that enraged him due to the fact that he’d been caught with his back turned. For Shiro and Allura, the Galra War had nearly cost them their lives.

Seems this war was Lance’s place in their shoes.

It made Keith feel sick.

“Whatever they did shouldn’t be the main focus,” Keith said with a stern expression. “What the main focus should be is making sure that Lance knows we are all supporting him. If he wants to talk about it later, then that’s his decision to make.”

Shiro’s smile was even brighter than the last. “Spoken like a true leader of Voltron.”

Keith avoided the way his gut clenched, but he couldn't help but also feel a bit of pride. The decision by Shiro to relinquish his position after the Galra war had been a tough one, and yet when the new war began he had been the first to offer assistance in any other way he could.

The ship was new.

The team’s interactions were new.

This war was new.

But the fact that they all cared for each other and would risk their lives for each other hadn’t changed and never would.

 

"I'm going to go find Lance," Keith spoke after deliberating. 

Shiro smiled. "Good. I think he'd like nothing more than that."

* * *

 

These days, Lance was easier found than lost.

He was always at the deck, having gotten used to going even without Keith according to Coran. While Keith might have been somewhat offended at this before, it only gave him relief now.

Lance had a place to call his own after months—or phoebs—of having nowhere to turn at all.

“Hey.”

Lance didn’t jump like he used to, or turn with wide eyes and back away before coming to his senses. Instead, he looked over his shoulder and flashed a grin. “Hey, mullet. Fancy seeing you here. Want me to kick your ass at naming stars and planets again?”

Scoffing, Keith moved to sit, shaking his head and looking up at them all. The universe was such a large place, and yet he was sure they had still barely seen half of it.

“I do want to talk, but not about that.”

“Hm? Go on, then,” Lance agreed, hand moving in the air as he searched, eyes scanning for a moment before his hand moved again to give him a new array of star formations. Keith nearly forgot what he had come for seeing Lance lazily skimming but no doubt recording each and every detail. Keith had begun to do the same exact thing, but not with the stars.

“He _llo~_ ” Lance teased, raising a brow and staring directly at him. “I get that I’m pretty, but that’s no reason to stare.”

That’s when Keith noticed it, the way Lance’s voice wavered at the mention of his own appearance. His voice before had been filled with confidence. It had been flirty and boisterous, but now….

“I want to talk about what happened.”

Lance tilted his head. “What happened when….?” he trailed off before his eyes lit up with recognition. “Oh.”

Keith stared at his feet, shifting as Lance cleared his throat.

“I mean, I figured someone would ask eventually.”

“Ask? Have you wanted to talk about it?” Keith said as the other shrugged.

“Sometimes I would, but the mood was so much better when I just…” Lance hesitated. “I liked that things had gone back to normal. If everyone was starting to heal, why would I  need to bring it back up again?”

“So you could heal?” Keith answered, looking at Lance as if he’d lost his mind. And in retrospect, he had, but that still didn’t make it right that Lance felt he couldn’t tell anyone what happened.

“So. You have the stage,” Keith stated, Lance biting his lower lip. “Take all the time you need.”


	2. Remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is healing, but when is a good time to talk about what's going on in his head? 
> 
> \-----  
> “Hey.”
> 
> Usually, Lance might have been freaked out by the sudden voice, and yet knowing it was Keith’s, he’d managed to keep his cool. Looking over his shoulder, he grinned at him.
> 
> “Hey, mullet. Fancy seeing you here. Want me to kick your ass at naming stars and planets again?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was super anxious to post this and nearly freaked out, but it seems that everyone enjoyed it more than I thought! So I want to thank you all for giving it a chance and hopefully it was worth it. :3 
> 
> Onwards~
> 
> ~HxL

When Lance been captured, he had come to terms that normalcy would always be a dream out of reach.

Once he left the healing pod, the feeling of someone touching him was enough to bring him physical pain. He wasn’t sure what had really happened, but he knew he ended up stood with a weapon pointed at his friends.

As he had held a gun to his friends— _were they even his friends?_ —he was sure he would feel better if he shot them all down. Then the hallucination would end, and he would be back on display for the sick fucks to do as they wished. If not for Coran, he might have done just that.

Lance had always thought the losing a limb or being forced to bleed out would be the worst an enemy could do: mindless torture. Physical injuries, that kind of thing.

He’d been wrong; He should have known better. 

Mind games were right up there, possibly terrifying Lance even more since he had experienced it. At first, the memories had been fuzzy, like a radio that didn’t have a strong enough connection to maintain the station. He tried to force himself to remember despite something warning him not to, and when his head began to ache to the point that he considered slamming it against the wall until he was unconscious, he opted to lay in his bed and try to ignore the frustration that burned through him.

For the first few months, he had avoided everyone without even thinking about it.  He hadn't been sure how to face them all. They all looked similar to before he disappeared, but they had changed in small ways. Keith's hair had been trimmed and was often worn up casually now. Hunk had gained more muscle while Pidge looked slightly taller. Allura had taken to braiding her hair rather than wearing it down—this shocked him mainly because he had been trying to get her to do that for  _years_ —and Shiro had become somewhat softer. He looked the same to Lance, but the way he behaved was definitely different, even if he couldn't put a finger on it. 

It was only when Keith had confronted him about talking that Lance's first memory came back to him. Keith had, for some reason, brought him to the observation deck to look at the stars. While this deck had nothing on the original, it had been too close to really complain. Looking at the stars had been better than looking into the eyes that still plagues his nightmares. 

It had been a simple question that triggered it: _Why’d you attack us when you left the healing pod?_

When Lance tried to explain, however, he could feel the way his body tensed, and at that moment he was sent back. He was sent back to the creatures laughing at him, poking and prodding him with sharp instruments that left tiny, painful wounds on his body. He was sure at one point he had been so bloodied that they all faded into each other, skin stained red, but he wasn’t sure if that was a real experience or something they  _made_ him see.

Either way, he had learned from Shiro to speak aloud when trying to break out of bad memories.

“I’m fine,” Lance had assured, but even he knew his voice was unconvincing.

Keith hadn’t pushed as much as Lance had expected, and after holding hands with the black paladin, Lance felt oddly comforted. Sure, he and Keith had held hands before, they had many times over the years. But this one seemed different, somehow. The touch burned, but not as painful as before. It was pure warmth, Lance aware of how Keith tried his best not to startle him.

Keith, the hot-headed and blunt leader of Voltron, was being purposefully careful for him.

Lance couldn’t help the way his chest filled with pride at how much Keith had grown. It was one of the first influences in his decision to stop wallowing.

He had survived. 

It was time for him to start living again.

* * *

 

The second memory Lance had remembered was when he tried to train again for the first time in months. He had been doing fine, aim a bit rusty, but hitting his targets nonetheless. It was mainly getting his body to work the way it used to, the fluidness he had taken for granted gone for the time being. 

After talking with Shiro numerous times, he finally managed to work up the courage to summon his broadsword again. He had learned how to handle his sword in combat years ago, but it still felt surreal. He had faced all kinds of weapons in space, and so he knew he couldn’t hold back unless he wanted to put himself and the team at a disadvantage. As usual, the simulations were fine, though he did lose his sword a few times in the process.

It was only when one of the higher level simulations came down with knives and launched itself at him that he had frozen.

_It won’t hurt, human. Trust me._

At the last second—a second too late, he later realized—he managed to duck out of the way, grabbing his bayard and about to summon his sword again. Before he could get back up to fight it, Allura’s voice broke his focus, demanding the simulation end. He turned from his fallen position, Allura rushing over and looking over him as if he had been mortally wounded.

“Allura?”

“Are you alright, Lance?” she had demanded, and while his mind wanted to lighten the mood the only way he knew how to, he had just nodded weakly.

“Yeah...yeah, I just, uh, got distracted.”

“You’re bleeding,” Allura stated, looking confused at how he hadn’t noticed. It was then that he looked down to see a small gash in his clothing, a soft breath leaving his lips.

“I am. I’ll...get Coran to take a look at it.”

Allura nodded, chewing on her lower lip. “I’ll escort you if you would like?”

Lance could only nod and wonder why despite the gash, he felt completely numb.

* * *

 

The third memory had been after a particularly fun dinner, one that he had planned after realizing that none of his fellow paladins seemed to hang around each other for longer than a few minutes before scattering. When he had mustered up the nerve asked Coran about it, he mentioned noticing it as well.

“It seems they’ve been better since you’ve been back, though,” Coran had assured. “If you think now is bad, before they could barely stand being around each other for a few ticks, let alone a few dobashes!”

He wasn’t sure what had sparked the memory to come back, but he was sure it had something to do with when Hunk slapped him on the back, searing pain moving down his spine. He remembered falling to his knees, his hand moving to touch his shoulder before he could see it: _blood_.

Blood on his hands, on the ground below him, and on his clothes. At first, his body had gone cold at the idea that all of this had been another hallucination, and tears peaked at his eyes before slipping down his cheeks. It was only when he could hear his name being called, the voices pleading, that he shut his eyes tightly and willed himself to calm down.

This, of course, resulting in reality returning, sweat trickling down the sides of his face and deep breaths leaving his lips.

Keith had been the one to escort him back to his room that night, warning Lance not to feel guilty about the dinner ending on such a note.

Lance couldn’t help the way the emotion trickled in, settling in the middle of his chest while he stared at his ceiling for the rest of the night.

* * *

 

“Hey.”

Usually, Lance might have freaked out at the sudden voice. He might have begun to tremble or skid away, yet knowing it was Keith, he managed to keep his cool.

Looking over his shoulder, he grinned at him. “Hey, mullet. Fancy seeing you here. Want me to kick your ass at naming stars and planets again?”

He could hear the other scoff, his grin growing as Keith moved to sit, shaking his head and looking up at the display.

“I do want to talk, but not about that.”

Lance continued to look through the stars, nodding slowly. “Hm? Go on, then.”

When the other didn’t speak, Lance paused his actions and looked over at him, nearly jumping when he saw Keith staring directly at him. Lance knew that look well considering Keith wasn’t exactly great at hiding his thoughts, even now.

“He _llo~_ I get that I’m pretty, but that’s no reason to stare,” Lance offered as a joke, wanting to lighten the mood. Whatever it was that Keith wanted to talk about, he was sure it would be serious just by the expression alone.

“I want to talk about what happened.”

Could Keith be any vaguer?

“What happened when…?” Lance started, but when he saw how uncomfortable Keith seemed to get, it snapped into place easily. “Oh,” he said quietly. He cleared his suddenly parched throat, wondering whether he should just pretend he couldn’t remember anything. It would be a lie, though, and lies were the opposite of progress. Besides, he had been expecting this: _wanting_ this.

It was the only way to get better, according to Shiro. If he could do it, Lance could at least give it a shot.

“I mean, I figured someone would ask eventually,” he admitted lightly, not missing how Keith perked. Lance hid his smile, glad that despite all that had happened, Keith was still one of the few people who wasn’t acting completely different. He appreciated everyone treating him so carefully at first, but as time went on, he had noticed how even Allura—Miss ‘I shot lasers at you from the castle at one point’—hadn’t scolded him once during training. She was usually a lot harsher from what he could remember, not in the sense that she was purposely rude, but because she knew progress when she saw it.

“Ask? Have you wanted to talk about it?” Keith’s voice questioned as Lance was reminded of the conversation at hand.

“Sometimes I would, but the mood was so much better when I just…” he wasn’t sure where he was going with it. The mood was better when he pretended everything was alright? The mood was better when he acted like months in captivity weren’t a thing?

“I liked that things had gone back to normal. If everyone was starting to heal, why would I need to bring it back up again?” Lance decided, accepting the answer in his mind. It was a no-brainer. Why would he cause pain to his friends when they had gone through enough?

“So you could heal?” Keith’s voice cuts into his thoughts, eyes narrowed and lips pursed. Lance had never seen that expression, wondering what was going on in Keith’s mind at the moment. “So. You have the stage. Take all the time you need.”

Lance eyed him, teeth digging into his lower lip. “You really want to know?”

“Wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.”

Smiling at the answer because it was typical Keith, Lance decided to tell him what he knew.

He told him about how a few weeks after he returned and finally managed to shower without feeling claustrophobic, he had cried at the scars that littered his body. He told him about how he had traced over them all about a thousand times now, some scars larger than others. It wasn't necessarily the way they looked that bothered him, but what they stood for. 

For _who_ they stood for. 

"Names?" Keith whispered, voice nearly cracking as Lance nodded. "Are you sure they are names?" 

“They told me,” Lance said, rubbing at a specific spot on his stomach. He was sure Coran had been the only one aware of the extent of his injuries. Now, Keith would know as well.

“Apparently humans were one of the species they hated more than anyone,” Lance explained, unable to shake how his brain tried to come up with a reason why he had been so hated. What had previous humans done, if anything at all? Were the things that captured him brainwashed or simply sadistic?

No matter the reason, Lance had become a walking warning about what they could do, and what they _would_ do to anyone that went against them.

Keith sucked in a breath. “How did they do it?”

Knives. Lasers. Sometimes odd combinations of them both. Space was just too weird to know everything while in a constant state of drowsiness.

The more detail that Lance gave, the more he could see Keith growing angrier, redder in the face and tenser in the shoulders.

“You shouldn’t be angry at things that already happened. I learned the hard way it isn’t worth it.”

“To you,” Keith spoke, voice gruff and low. He nodded nonetheless, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself before speaking again. “Was there more?”

Lance shrugged. “Honestly, your guess is as good as mine,” he admitted. “But the only other memory I can assure happened was when they made me see you guys. The rest seems to be either blocked or whatever they pumped into me managed to actually help in forgetting.”

“Don’t say that,” Keith said, almost snapping at Lance. He paused, looking down at his hands. “Don’t make it sound like a good thing that they used you.”

Sighing, Lance moved to lie on his back, eyes once again on the ceiling. Thankfully this one was occupied with the universe instead of nothingness. “I’m just glad that you guys are actually real,” he whispered as he closed his eyes. “I sometimes still wonder if this is a hallucination or if I’m actually dead and just dreaming,” he admitted. “It’s...hard to tell. But there are little things that you all do that even they couldn’t replicate. I only realized this after I’d gotten back, though. I could have sworn you guys hated me—”

“We _don’t_ ,” Keith interrupted, sounding so sincere that Lance felt nostalgia hit him.

“Calm down, Keith. I know you don’t hate me. But the mind is irrational sometimes,” Lance reminded. “At least it’s getting easier to work through, though, so soon I’ll be able to tell my mind to shut it’s quiznak.”

He could hear Keith chuckle, it small and tense, but still a chuckle. “Still don’t think you’re using that word right.”

“Yeah, well, that one was a freebie,” Lance offered. At the sound of shifting, he looked over to see Keith lying beside him. When he met his eyes, he didn’t see the usual mask of calm he had grown used to.

Lance saw a flurry of emotions.

“Stop with that look.”

Keith didn't look away, Lance feeling his throat tighten.

“I said stop that,” Lance said barely above a whisper. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault but…”

“Yours?” Keith said with a look that dared him to say the word himself. “Because that’s not true and you should know damn well it isn’t.”

Lance decided to move on for the sake of keeping the peace. “Either way, I’m here,” he reminded. “That’s good, isn’t it? I’m breathing, I’m talking, I’m...”

_With you?_

Keith nodded immediately and Lance could feel the familiar warmth of the other’s gloved hand against his colder one. He shifted closer, Keith doing the same as they looked back up at the display. Their shoulders were nearly pressed together and Lance welcomed the warmth.

For a while, it was comfortably silent. Lance usually hated the silence because it got him to think and try to remember. Now, was able to just think about nothing. He was able to clear his mind of everything and just breathe.

When Lance thought he could drift off due to how quiet they had gone, Keith spoke again.

“You said there were things about us that you noticed.”

Lance nodded, eyes closed even as he turned his head to face Keith. “Mmhm.”

“What were they?”

Opening his eyes, he could see Keith staring at him as if he was the only thing that existed. The look caused Lance’s lips to twitch, moving so he was on his side rather than his back.

“Well, for starters, their version of Pidge was completely off. It never really did much besides talk, but the words were harsh. It’s talk about how I had never been a brother or a good paladin, pretty tame stuff. That version was the first I saw, but after a while I guess they gave up on it and only used her likeness when it was all of you together.”

Keith nodded, jaw set.

“Hunk was one of the harshest. Their version of him nearly beat me to death, I think.”

Keith’s sharp intake of breath made Lance squeeze his hand tightly.

“It’s one of the reasons why I never told him. He would have felt guilty over something that he didn't even do. The night he slapped me on the back and I freaked out, I knew that this Hunk was my Hunk. His eyes were pleading with me to forgive him after it happened.  If something like that made him guilty, then there is no way that he could have done all those things that their version did. Not to his worst enemy, let alone his friend.”

“Best friend,” Keith corrected him. “And he only does enough to ensure he and his friends won’t get hurt.”

“Right. Because Hunk’s got a heart of gold. And I don’t want him to think that I’m scared of him.”

Keith shifted so he was on his side now, never breaking eye contact or letting go of Lance's hand. “Well, are you?”

“Not anymore,” Lance admitted. “I’m not afraid of any of you. I’m afraid my mind will play tricks and force my hand, though.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll deal with that if it happens. But I’m sure it won’t.”

Lance hummed. He knew for sure they would. At first, he hadn’t been, but now he could see just how much everyone was trying.

“What about the rest of em? Were they bad too?”

“Shiro’s was god awful,” Lance said with a smile. “They always forgot his arm was tech, so whenever he was around I would tell them that they needed to try harder.”

He flinched with a shaky laugh. “They didn’t like that too much.”

Lance could see Keith shift just a bit.

“As for Allura, I was impressed. She was the second hardest to separate when compared to our Allura. The only thing they really couldn’t get right were her eyes. I would make a joke about how her eyes saved me, but it honestly threw me off major when I exited the pod. That and Coran showing up out of nowhere.”

Keith nodded, seeming to be listening closely as his eyes went from their hands back to Lance’s face a few times before he spoke again. “And me?” he asked, Lance wanting to make him stop with the expression. He looked like a puppy that’d been kicked or something.

“You were the hardest to separate in my mind.”

Ripping off the band-aid.

“They had your voice, your stupid mullet…” he attempted to joke, but at the way Keith’s face didn’t change, he took the hint that now wasn’t the time to joke around. “You were practically cloned by how well they did.”

Keith squeezed his hand, closing his eyes.

“There was one small thing that tells me that you are real every time, though,” Lance assured quietly, raising his free hand to gently ghost over Keith’s closed eyes before touching the area right below them.

Keith opened his eyes, lips parting as if he wanted to say something. He didn’t, though, watching and hanging from Lance’s every word.

“Their version of you had dead eyes. They made me feel nothing.”

He could see Keith swallow hard.

“And how are mine different?”

Lance gave a small smile. ”Yours…” he started, fingers brushing against his cheek carefully. “I can’t even start to tell you what I feel when I look at yours.”

 


	3. Shine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things won't be the same, but they'd be silly to think they couldn't move on. 
> 
> \-----------------  
> They stared at each other for a few seconds, Keith speaking first once he regained composure.
> 
> “Lance.”
> 
> Still wide-eyed, Lance nodded in acknowledgment.
> 
> “Mullet.”
> 
> “We should talk.”
> 
> “Yeah…yeah. Alright.”

“You said that to him?”

Lance nodded as he pushed his face into the pillow, hearing Shiro chuckle at the action.

“I did...and now I’m not sure whether I made things weird or not. He was just trying to comfort me and then I go and say something like that! He was just being a good leader and I turned it into something straight out of a cheesy movie!”

Chuckling at the comparison, Shiro shrugged. “Considering the circumstances, I’m sure that he didn’t mind it much since you two have been attached at the hip ever since. I’m also sure he asked about what the difference was between him and their version of him because he was worried there would be no difference.”

Lance felt his body go slack, moving to sit up and hugging the pillow tightly to his chest. “Of course there was a difference. Keith is Keith. Just like the rest of you are you. They could never have gotten that right.”

“But our versions were realistic enough, weren’t they?”

Lance tensed. It was still creepy how Shiro managed to pinpoint small details and come to conclusions so accurately.

“Well, yeah. But I noticed the little things and still nearly betrayed you all. I should have had more faith in you all.”

Shiro shook his head. “It isn’t about a lack of faith, Lance. It’s about them messing with your mind and making sure you couldn’t tell after some point. There’s really no one to blame but them.”

Lance nodded slowly, agreeing to an extent. It hadn’t been Lance’s fault. He had to keep reminding himself of that.

“Months ago, I was lost in space with demonic aliens that tried to ruin my life,” Lance began. “And now, I’m here, thinking about Keith and trying to…”.

“Trying to what?” Shiro said with a knowing smile. “Be happy? God forbid you do that.”

Lance pushed air through his nose at the tease. “I just don’t want to make a mistake or force him into accepting my confession because he feels bad,” he said quietly into the pillow. “He’s the leader and just doing his job. What he’s doing isn’t any different than what you’d do for me.”

Shiro ran a hand through his white hair with a sigh. “Well, I wasn’t going to say this, but Keith was acting like this was far before you noticed. I’m talking before you were captured and even before he became the leader.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah,” Shiro said without hesitation. “He’s always requested for you two to be on missions together because he felt he’d have your back best, and if there was some type of thing you were sulking about, he’d tell me because he knew you’d never tell him.”

Lance relaxed, a slight smile on his lips. “What a nerd.”

“A caring nerd,” Shiro corrected. “I admit, he’s been more hesitant since you’ve been back, but I don’t think he is doing it strictly because he thinks you’re fragile or anything. He wouldn’t have let Coran and I convince him to bring you on missions again if that was the case.”

“He did?”

“Of course. You’re still a paladin, Lance,” Shiro assured, placing a hand on his head and ruffling gently. “And Keith knows that. Maybe he just needs that push as a reminder that you’re doing alright now. There isn’t really any other way to tell him how you feel and that you miss normal him, is there?”

The silence was answer enough for them both.

“Well then, I think you have someone you need to go talk to, don’t you?” Shiro suggested, giving Lance’s head a final pat before gently pushing at the other’s lower back.

Lance nodded, placing the pillow down and moving to stand. He was about to make his way to the door until he paused, turning back. “Shiro?”

Shiro chuckled. “He isn’t caring about you just because he’s the leader, Lance.”

“No, that isn’t what I wanted to say,” Lance clarified, clearing his throat. Before Shiro could process, Lance had his arms around the other in a tight hug, Shiro jumped at the gesture. ‘Thank you. For everything.”

Relaxing, Lance could feel the other’s arms wrap around him after a few moments. He smiled to himself.

He was starting to think that normalcy wasn’t too far off.

* * *

 

Keith paced his room as he tried to think about how to approach this rationally.

‘There’s nothing really rational about this, though,’ Keith thought to himself, ruffling his hair with a deep breath.

About half a year ago, they’d found Lance.

A few months ago, Keith had managed to get him to at least talk somewhat normally.

A few weeks ago, Keith had wanted to kiss Lance to the point it pained him to hold it back.

All because Lance had to go and talk to sincerely about his _eyes_.

_“I can’t even start to tell you what I feel when I look at yours.”_

Keith wondered if he should have just gone for it. The mood seemed right, Lance was literally inches from him…

But Keith had known that the context was too heavy for something involving romance. Even if Lance had unknowingly brought it into play, Keith had to know that Lance probably was unaware of the atmosphere.

And so they’d laid there under the stars for an hour longer before Keith walked Lance to his room, bidding him goodnight and retreating to his own room to wallow.

He’d asked for advice from Pidge, but in Pidge fashion, she’d been no help.

_“We’ve all nearly died fighting wars and saving people...and you’re scared of confessing you have a thing for Lance? Lame.”_

“I’ll just go talk to him and that’ll be that,” Keith decided, grabbing his jacket and moving to his door. “I’ll just tell him the truth and…” he started, his door opening as he came face to face with a shocked Lance.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, Keith speaking first once he regained composure.

“Lance.”

Still wide-eyed, Lance nodded in acknowledgment.

“Mullet.”

“We should talk.”

“Yeah…yeah. Alright.”

* * *

 

 

"Are you sure this is the best place to talk?” Lance asked with a raised brow as they entered the observation deck. “I mean, I love this place and I love coming here, but that’s usually...you know, when everyone’s asleep or busy. Today everyone is wandering around and…”

“Lance Mcclain worried about someone walking in on a conversation?” Keith spoke with a slight smile, Lance pausing and turning a bit red in the cheeks.

“I’m not _worried_ , I’m just…cautious. The last thing I need is Pidge claiming she has more on me after you all asked for copies of me singing in the shower.”

Keith bit his lip and turned away, trying hard not to laugh as he messed with the display. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Keith…” Lance warned, pointing a finger at him. “I swear if this is a setup…”

“It isn’t,” Keith assured instantly, eyes landing on him with honest intent. “I really do want to talk, and if anything, the display will confuse them before they even know what we are saying if someone does come in.”

Relaxing, Lance nodded, moving to sit in his usual spot as he watched Keith with suspicion. Keith couldn’t help the smile on his lips when he turned to see Lance sitting cross-legged, shoulders sagged and eyes narrowed. He looked like a child, in short, and Keith supposed in some ways, they still were.

Twenty-one was just barely old enough to drink on Earth, last he’d been there. It should have been a crime for it to be old enough to save the universe once, let alone twice.

Before he could get into the fact that Pidge was younger than them both and at war as well, Lance cleared his throat.

“So...why were you storming out of your room earlier?”

Raising a brow, he moved to sit beside Lance. “I wasn’t. I was going to find you so I could ask you to talk.”

“You looked angry,” Lance said with a frown. “But I did only get a look at you for a second before you turned into a goldfish.”

Nudging at Lance lightly, Keith returned his eyes to the stars. “Well, you shocked me. You were also a goldfish from my perspective.”

“I resent that. I’m more of a mermaid,” Lance explained, flicking his hair with his fingers as Keith rolled his eyes. He couldn’t deny it, though, considering that even though he piloted Red, he was still the best in water when out of the lion.

“What, no response? Come on, man. Your banter game has been off,” Lance teased, poking the other’s shoulder. “Don’t tell me you’re getting soft on me.”

“Shut up, Lance.”

Despite the insulting words, Lance perked up eyes bright. Keith didn’t have much a chance to admire it, however, because they were gentle a second later. “That’s the mullet I know,” he whispered lightly. “Thought I’d lost you.”

Keith squinted, unsure of what Lance meant. He’d been there the whole time. Lance was the one who’d disappeared.

“What does that mean?”

“What that means is that all of you have been treating me like I’m someone who is going to break if you even try to tease or insult me,” Lance explained, eyes growing sharp. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed. Allura doesn’t yell at me during training anymore, you don’t insult me at _all_ , Pidge doesn’t call me a space moron….”

“We thought you hated that,” Keith muttered, Lance scoffing.

“It was what made us all like a family, Keith! What is a family that doesn’t tease, argue, or push each other?!”

Surprised by the way his voice got louder, Keith couldn’t help but remember how long ago it was that Lance couldn’t even be around loud voices.

The Lance that sat beside him with an exasperated expression and a slight pout wasn’t the Lance he’d known before his capture, but it was the Lance he’d always cared about.  Keith realized that maybe they all had been being different to Lance.

Lance had been pretending to be his old self because they’d been pretending that the way they were treating him was the same when it wasn’t.

“Is that a light bulb I see?” Lance said with a grin, poking Keith in the forehead gently. “Take it from me. Acting is exhausting...so let’s all stop, alright? I don’t think Shiro and Coran can handle much more tip-toeing around the topic. Let’s all just be open and out about what we want to say. I’ll tell everyone else the same thing when I see them, so don’t think I’m calling you out or anything. I just want you to know that I’m alright. Not, like, miraculously healed or anything,” he admitted, “but I’m doing okay.”

Keith blinked, lips parting before pressing into a thin line. “Alright.”

“Good! Now that we are on the same page, we can talk about what you wanted me for. The floor is yours for now, mullet.”

Shifting so he faced Lance, Keith nodded. “I like you.”

Lance’s smile didn’t falter, but his eyes did flash with a bit of something Keith couldn’t decipher. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I said, I like you,” Keith admitted, hoping his face didn’t show how freaked out he felt. He had actually said it, and pretty easily at that. “You said we should be open about what we want to talk about and say,” he reminded as Lance’s smile finally fell, leaving nothing but a deep flush on his cheeks.

Shifting so he sat on his knees, he looked at Keith like he’d gone insane. “I did, but I meant about like, calling me out when I did stuff wrong! Not about….I mean I don’t really...mind it…” Lance said, voice growing softer as he continued. “But now I don’t really have much to talk to _you_ about.”

Keith rolled his neck, having figured Lance wouldn’t be ready. “I don’t want this to make things awkward, but I did want you to know. If you can’t talk to me or be around me until you’re more comfortable about this kind of thing—”

Lance placed a hand over his mouth to stop him, Keith’s eyes widening just a bit.

“It’s not that I’m uncomfortable. It’s that I had been aiming to kind of say that after you finished so now I’m left here just...processing.”

Had Keith caught that right?

“I thought that you were just treating me extra carefully because of what happened and not because of you feeling like...that,” Lance continued awkwardly. “So I guess it kinda worked out that I wanted you all to treat me normally.”

“Back up,” Keith said, not wanting to continue without being sure he wasn’t going crazy. “So you were going to confess? Like, tell me you liked me confess?”

“What other confess is there?” Lance said, looking down at his hands. “I just wanted to preface my confession with the honesty spiel to prepare.”

“Why,” Keith said, lips twitching in amusement at how much Lance seemed to have planned this. “Why not just come out and say it?”

“And risk you going along with it just because you felt bad? Doing that would have been no bueno, mullet,” Lance said, rubbing his arm. “I wanted to make sure you would reject me outright if you didn’t feel the same. I’m used to it, I could take it.”

Snorting and shaking his head. Keith wondered how he’d gotten in so deep with someone as unpredictable as Lance Mcclain. A moment later, he’d thanked the universe he had.

“So what now? You like me, and I like you,” Keith spoke, Lance clearing his throat.

“I guess next is to date?”

“You guess? Shouldn’t you know what to do Mr. I flirt with anything that walks?”

Scandalized, Lance leaned forward. “I never flirted with _you_ , mullet.”

Keith, not one to back down from a challenge, leaned forward as well. “Because it wouldn’t have _worked_ on me, cargo pilot.”

Staring at each other without a word, Keith caught how Lance’s lips twitched upwards slightly, unable to stop his own from doing the same.

“So we’re dating,” Keith said with a tone of finality, Lance nodded slowly.

“We are.”

Reaching out, Keith took a hold of Lance’s hand—as cold as ever—and squeezed. “Good,” he said, looking up only to see Lance chewing on his lower lip in an attempt to hide his smile.

“Good.”

* * *

 

“Are you sure about this?”

Lance groaned, looking over his shoulder with the bottoms of his shirt in his hands. “How many times are you going to ask that? You’re making me more nervous,” he said with a small scrunch of his nose. “Besides, they aren’t as bad as they used to be.”

Keith wasn’t sure how the topic of Lance’s markings had popped into said man’s head, but after practice when they’d both been on their way to shower, he’d offered to show Keith.

“Why now?” Keith muttered, unable to stop the way his own heart fluttered with uneasiness.

“You telling me you don’t know what today is, mullet?”

Pausing, Keith just stared at Lance for what seemed like hours, Lance’s shaking shoulders snapping him from his deep thoughts.

“Here’s a hint. It’s been a year.”

Getting it immediately, Keith sucked in a breath. “Since you’ve been back.”

“Look at you, being all smart,” Lance said with a chuckle. He turned, moving to wrap his arms around Keith’s neck and pressing his forehead against Keith’s own. “So obviously I’d want the person I started dating to see first. Well...minus Coran.”

Keith nodded, hands resting on the other’s waist as he pulled away to press a kiss to his forehead. “Alright. As long as you’re sure.”

“I’ve been sure for the past half hour,” Lance said with a raised brow. “I’m starting to think you’re more nervous than I am.”

“Can you blame me? It isn’t exactly fun to see the person you care about hurt,” Keith grumbled, returning his gaze to Lance when he felt a palm press against his cheek.

“You seem to forget that I’ve fought with you for years, samurai,” Lance said seriously, Keith felt his face heat at the old nickname. “I’ve more than enough times seen you hurt, on the brink of death, or bleeding profusely.”

As if to prove a point, Lance allowed a hand to move around Keith and press into his back. Then it moved to his shoulder blade, only to work it’s way back to Keith’s face where a scar near his eye was.

Each old injury burned under Lance’s touch, and he cleared his throat. “I got it. But you…”

“Got them in the same exact way everyone else got theirs. In war. And 20 years from now, I’ll look back on them and be proud because damn, I’m strong.”

The way Lance’s eyes flickered after his words made Keith nod without thinking. “Yeah. You are.”

“And don’t forget it. Now,” Lance said as he turned. “Before you chicken out again…”

Before Keith could stop him, he pulled off his long-sleeved shirt, revealing tanned skin and a variety of markings and scars. Some were light against his skin, raised and prominent. Others were flat, there but forgotten unless seen.

That was when Keith could see what looked to be a pattern in some of them, throat tightening.

The names.

Lance slowly turned, biting his lower lip as he watched Keith’s reaction.

More symbols by Lance’s belly button, some near his collarbone. Some were large than others, some seemed to be weak enough that they were fading away.

“They’re pretty gnarly,” Lance said with a smile. “But that’s war, right?”

Keith wished it weren’t.

He moved toward Lance, taking a deep breath and placing his gloved hands against Lance’s cheeks. “Yeah,” he agreed quietly. “Hopefully soon it won’t be.”

Lance chuckled, placing his own hands against Keith’s and leaning into his touch. “Then you could meet my family. I’m sure they’d love you.”

“Yeah?” Keith said with a raised brow. “They better. I put up with their loud and flirty son.”

Gasping, Lance tried to argue only for Keith to lean forward and kiss him before he could respond.

It wasn’t their first kiss, but it was the first that Keith had initiated himself. Each time he’d wanted to, Lance would steal a kiss before he could even think, and so this time he decided not to.

When Keith pulled away, Lance followed, eyes still closed until they fluttered open.

“What was that for?” Lance murmured as Keith brushed his thumbs against the other’s cheeks.

“Just wanted to.”

Lance smiled. “Well ‘just want to’ again.”

Snorting, Keith leaned in. “That’s not how that works, cargo pilot.”

“Yeah well make it work, mullet,” Lance said, eyes bright like his smile.

And so Keith did.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that is it! 
> 
> My first Klance fic, finished in the span of two-three days.  
> Thank you to all the peeps who read and left kudos or messaged me on Tumblr with comments. I really appreciate them because it helped me finish! 
> 
> Got a request for your favs? Help me get bingo and send em to me at tumblr (Headphone-love). 
> 
> Thanks again for coming on this ride :) 
> 
> ~HxL


End file.
